IVD Companies and medical laboratories are developing serological survey testing that will enable them to determine how widespread COVID-19 has become While medical laboratories gear up for testing to detect SARS-CoV-2—the novel coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 illness—efforts also are underway for expanded use of serological tests that can detect whether an individual’s immune systems has developed antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as serological surveys that...

Following criticism over delays in authorizing medical LDT COVID-19 tests, the FDA swiftly shut down consumer at-home specimen collection schemes Banning COVID-19 tests that rely on consumers’ collecting their own specimens at home is one example where the federal US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took remarkably swift action. It’s also interesting to note how some business people—who lack formal training in clinical laboratory medicine—often are ready to seize any opportunity to sell lab...

Previously considered “junk,” scientists learn that parts of DNA which don’t produce proteins are more important than first thought It turns out that the long stretches of DNA in the human genome that are commonly called “junk DNA” or “dark DNA” may be doing important work. Researchers at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) recently published their findings about stretches of junk DNA that may have a role in how cancers develop. This is an area where pathology and omics are making...

Two major clinical laboratory conferences reschedule, as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to disrupt long-planned events; Many labs are losing money as fewer patients visit physicians This week, the ongoing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic was responsible for two important developments in the clinical laboratory industry. Both involved the rescheduling of major annual conferences. In both cases, conference organizers are placing different bets on when they...

Because patient satisfaction continues to drive Medicare scoring, interest grows in technologies that reduce or remove pain from the patient’s experience, particularly when a phlebotomist draws blood for clinical laboratory testing Clinical laboratories know full well that patients do not like being stuck by needles. And hospital administrators know that increasing the hospital’s patient-satisfaction scores is important for Medicare hospital accreditation. This is why hospital administrators...

Bioeasy stands behind the accuracy of its coronavirus test kits and, in a statement, questioned whether they were being used correctly How accurate are the SARS-CoV-2 test kits being offered by different in vitro diagnostics companies, as well as the internally-developed COVID-19 tests developed by individual medical laboratories, both here in the United States and in other countries? It’s a question that has not been addressed by the news media nor by healthcare regulators. That is why a...